CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR Was Influenced by SE7EN and THE GODFATHER
I've been hearing nothing but great things about Joe and Anthony Russo's Captain America: Civil War. According to people who have already seen it, it's the best Marvel movie so far. During a recent set visit, Comingsoon had the chance to talk to the directors about the film and what other movies influenced them as they were bringing this story to life.
They surprisingly drew inspiration from films such as David Fincher's Se7en and Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, as well as other espionage and conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s. Anthony Russo explains:
“In general, just as a framing we always thought about Winter Soldier very specifically as a political thriller. This movie we think of more as a psychological thriller. It’s connected to what we’re doing in Winter Soldier, but it evolves into a more sensitive, complicated character thriller. Again, I think based upon the fact we’re dealing with our protagonists clashing with one another.”
Joe Russo adds:
“The movie we’ve been referencing a lot on this one is Se7en, weirdly. We like smashing genres into each other, so if you can find something that’s really idiosyncratic in respect to superhero genre and you can smoosh it into it you usually wind up with something fresh and different. Se7en, Fargo, just as far as we’re not making comparisons in terms of quality, we’re just talking influences. The Godfather, because that’s a sprawling film with a lot of characters that tells very intricate stories. Each character has an arc."
That's so cool! I love those movies, so it's great to hear that they helped inspire what we will see in Civil War. Anthony goes on to mention director Brian De Palma as an influence. They previously talked about the influence he had on The Winter Solider, but it will carry on into this movie as well. He says:
“De Palma is the one carry over between both movies. Because he’s so good at tension and empty space.
They also referenced the western genre because of the character showdowns. It makes complete sense that they would look at westerns for this chapter in Captain America's story because the story obviously focuses on two teams of superheroes having a showdown.
Captain America: Civil War will be released on May 6th, and this talk of the directors' influences got me even more excited to see what they've created for us!